1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a conference system.
2. Related Background Art
Conventionally, when participants, each with a notebook PC, a PDA, a cellular phone or other equipment, hold a conference, a host PC installed in a conference room verifies each participant and grants the participant a permission to participate in the conference.
Such a conference system will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 through 3. FIG. 1 shows a structure of a conference system according to a related art; FIG. 2 is a flowchart indicating the control procedure of a notebook PC in the conference system in FIG. 1; and FIG. 3 is a flowchart indicating the control procedure of a host PC in the conference system in FIG. 1.
In the conference system, a dedicated host PC 907 is installed in a conference room and a projector 908 is connected to the host PC 907, as shown in FIG. 1. Participants in the conference have notebook PCs 901–905 and use them to connect to a network 906.
In each of the notebook PCs 901–905, as shown in FIG. 2, first an ID is input in step S1001, and a conference participation request is sent to the host PC 907 in the following step S1002. In step S1003, a determination is made as to whether a conference participation permission has been received from the host PC 907. If the conference participation permission has been received from the host PC 907, the corresponding participant participates in the conference in step S1004. On the other hand, if the conference participation permission is not received from the host PC 907, i.e., if a conference participation refusal is received, the corresponding participant in step S1005 does not participate in the conference.
As shown in FIG. 3, the host PC 907 waits for conference participation requests to be sent from notebook PCs 901–905 in step S1101, and once a conference participation request is received from one of the notebook PCs 901–905, the host PC 907 in step S1102 compares the ID included in the conference participation request received against an ID stored in advance. If the two match, the host PC 907 sends a conference participation permission to the corresponding notebook PC in step S1103. On the other hand, if the two do not match, the host PC 907 sends a conference participation refusal to the corresponding notebook PC in step S1104.
According to the conference system described above, each ID must be registered in order to have a permission to participate in a conference granted or refused, but this is a time-consuming process.